Saturday, December 5, 2015

You don't actually want peace.

I’m not a religious scholar but it is always laughable to me
when people say Islamic texts are inherently violent. Without examining the
context within which they were written, pretty much all religious texts can be
interpreted negatively. And they are. Islam is about 600 years newer than
Christianity and if one thinks back to Christianity in the 1400s, one can
easily find out how violent Christianity was capable of. It takes a long
time for any kind of religious reformation to happen and it never stops.

I don’t think the Bible itself has changed too much but the
way it is interpreted is markedly different now from even 100 years ago. And in
fact, reformation in Christianity still continues. The Pope himself seems to be
ushering in a new brand of Catholicism. People have a problem with Sunni and
Shia divisions, yet everyone seems to accept the 10+ different brands of Christianity that have developed over time and
block out the clashes between Catholics and Protestants. Even now, even in
America – in the so called land of the free, Christian groups want to stop
progress. They would take away women’s right to choose and LGBTQIA people’s
right to even exist.

I myself grew up in a fairly progressive but devout
household. My maternal grandfather was an Islamic scholar and taught me to read
the Quran. My paternal grandfather built a Mosque and Madrasa right in front of
our family home in Bangladesh. But growing up, none of the women in my family
wore a burka or even a hijab (my dad is one of 9 siblings and my mum is one of
6, so no shortage of women in the family). But this has changed in the last
decade. A lot of my cousins and primary school friends have started to wear the
hijab and it has become sort of a cross between fashion statement and distinguishing
socio-economic factor. Wealthier folks tend to be embracing this new “religion
as a fashion statement” movement.

Many in western countries seem to think that Islam needs
reformation. They are not incorrect but my observation is that Islam was
already on the path to reform well before the western world took any notice. People think Islam needs reformation
because of terrorism, whereas Muslims like myself think terrorism is what’s
stopping actual reformation.

The victims of Islamic terrorism are overwhelmingly Muslim.
The countries that are root cause of this problem are tied to the United States
and Europe. When I look at pictures of Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan
in the 70s and how progressive women’s clothing was and compare them to the
situation now it becomes very obvious to me that Islam was already being
practiced in conjunction with progressivism but it was halted. War and
political unrest fueled by US and UK involvement has not only prevented
reformation, it has taken it backwards. In the absence of personal security,
people turn to their faith and anyone who can promise them security. People are
afraid and most importantly terrorists and their ideology have a lot of power - the combination has proven to be lethal to all who are involved.

Progressive Muslims are not backed by anyone. Feminists,
academics, and scholars are working independently to try to affect change with
no help and constant threats. Think about the regimes that US and UK support,
think about the amount of war that is waged on innocent civilians, think about
how Muslims are treated in the Western world. All of this contributes to the
hostility we see all around the world. I have no problems reconciling my feminist
values with my faith but that seems to be incredulous to everyone because the
only interpretation of Islam anyone ever talks about is politicized Islam in
the context of terrorism and violence.

There is no doubt that Islam needs to be separated from the state’s
business. But this is challenging. Just look at Christianity in American politics.
There is no doubt that women’s voices have to be included in this reform. There is no doubt
that barbaric acts should be denounced whether they are in the name of religion
or notions of freedom and security. Our collective humanity cannot justify
torture for the security of wealthy white people while denouncing beheadings.
We cannot claim that Islam condones oppression of women when domestic violence
and our rape culture continues to oppress women in our own society. New Zealand
is not an Islamic country, so then why are women oppressed here?

Eradication of Islam will not eradicate terrorism. We need
to fundamentally re-think our foreign and military policy, our allies, and who
we fund in order to eradicate terrorism. Self-determination, implementation of
universal human rights, democracy in the form people’s ability to participate
in free elections, economic security, and freedom from war is the antidote to
terrorism and a progressive Islam.

People ask for liberal voices in Islam. Well I am here but nobody actually wants to listen to me or those who are like me. White men in power and hawks who control the military agenda don't actually want to listen to us. They would rather put terrorists on a pedestal on our behalf and listen to their rhetoric. Fox News would laugh at us. Illegitimate "leaders of Islam" would put fatwas on us.

3 comments:

thank you for this piece. reform in islam is not going to make the slightest bit of difference to the violence in the middle east and the offshoots that are now reaching the western world. no analysis can be taken seriously that ignores the first invasion of iraq, the decade of sanctions that saw half a million iraqi children die (& we don't even know how many adults) due to lack of access to medicines, a second illegal invasion and occupation that saw the theft of trillions of dollars of wealth and total destruction of infrastructure. not to forget the support of rebel groups in syria to overthrow assad - which has rather backfired, the french actions in mali & algeria, the group of western countries bombing libya, the ongoing violence and injustice against palestinians, and the current support of the saudi campaign in yemen - didn't they just bomb another hospital in yemen yesterday?

all this violence has been perpetrated and/or supported by western nations but there really is not enough analysis that puts responsibility on them for the foreseeable result of all this bombing, the drone attacks, the indiscriminate killing and the refusal to rebuild what their bombing has destroyed.

also, as you mention, there is a very christian aspect to some of this - if you look at the recent pronouncements of mr blair, to the rhetoric of the junior mr bush while in office, the engagement of the religious right in the US with the military as large numbers of them enlisted and continue to do so. regardless of the way any reform within christianity, the large scale killing by actors who profess a strong faith shows that this reform is not stopping them from killing hundreds of thousands of people nor in any way reducing the profits of the arms industry.

so it really saddens and frustrates me when muslims organisations and individuals, instead of bringing out the inherent injustice and brutality of the current & recent military actions undertaken by the western nations, instead rush to dissociate from the brutality that is resulting. i understand why many of them need to do it - they aren't in a position to reframe the rhetoric, and should they dare to bring up these issues, they would immediately be targetted as terrorist sympathisers with some horrendous consequences. we can see that in the targetting of mosques and muslims in western countries and the high level of hostility they are facing. i understand that they don't have the power to reframe and readjust the focus.

and yet, if we really want to solve the problem of what is called "islamic terrorism", there is no other way of doing it. yes, muslims are not perfect, yes there is certainly need of continuing reform as there continues to be with all religions. and yes, a lot of the violence in the middle east and elsewhere is cloaked in islamic language and islamic justifications. i don't deny any of that. but unless we change the fundamental circumstances of their lives, revert to peace and to peace-building activities, build up communities and infrastructure, that reform can't happen.

In my opinion Everyone should understand that Muslims are not involved in terrorism. Some people are committed in the name of Muslims. Their main objective is terrorism. They can not have any religion. Read more..In my opinion Everyone should understand that Muslims are not involved in terrorism. Some people are committed in the name of Muslims. Their main objective is terrorism. They can not have any religion. Sant Kirpal Singh